Week 10: Storytelling "Dear Diary"

Dear Diary, (Asvina 8)  

I know that it has been a while since I have last written to you, but so much has happened in the past few days. First things first, I feel that I must tell you about the unexpected guest that came and shook the palace up. Diary, do you remember the dreams that I used to always have when I was younger? I would randomly dream about this womanly figure that would always look over me while I was sleep. I guess you could say kind of like a protector. Little did I know that the figure in my dream would be my oldest sister. Can you believe that I have finally met my long lost sister? I am extremely outraged at Father for never mentioning her to me. If you were wondering, her name is Shikhandi. The biggest news of this discovery is that she would not like me to refer to her as my sister, but as my brother. I set up a meeting in my bedroom to finally meet him. Let me tell you that my nerves were shot and my stomach was doing turns while I waited for Shikhandi to come. I didn’t know what to expect when he came through the door. All I know is that I had a lot of questions that I am not sure he can answer. I have to go before Father comes and yells at me for still being awake. Sweet dreams Diary.   

Draupadi

Dear Diary!

Dear Diary,  (Asvina 9th)   

After the departure of my brother, Father has finally allowed me to marry. I am elated, because I thought I would be under the strict protection of my father forever. Father has pulled out all of the stops, just so I can find the right man. To be honest I really don’t know what type of man I would want to spend the rest of my life with. All I know is that the one has to be in sync with me. In other words he has to be the Purusha to my Prakriti. Father told me that I will have a ceremony where only the best suitors will come. He also jokingly said that I need to be prepared because of all the suitors will try to amaze me with their charms. Not to toot my own horn, but I am a one in a million catch of the night. My father is skeptical because he doesn’t want me to fall in the trap of a man that can sweet talk even a deaf man. I told him that everything will be okay and that he shouldn’t worry because I have a keen ear for sweet-talkers. I know who is being genuine and who is just trying to pull a fast one on me. I shall write back to you later and tell you what happened at the ceremony. Wish me luck on finding the man of my dreams! Write to you later, Diary.   

Draupadi  

  

Author's Note: So this is the first time that I have actually done a diary post for storytelling. I figured that this style would be be fitting for this week's reading. I was going back and forth on what style I wanted to use this week. I felt that a diary post would be more intimate for this setting and it allowed for the reader to see Draupadi's inner thoughts. In the book Palace of Illusions, Draupadi finally gets to meet Shikhandi. Not as her sister, but as her brother. They sit down and talk briefly, but soon after Shikhandi leaves. After the arrival of  Shikhandi, the King decides that he wants Draupadi to marry someone because he doesn’t want Draupadi to turn out like her sister Shikhandi. He sets up a ceremony for her and the best suitors of the other kingdoms. Draupadi is elated to finally be able to marry, but is a little overwhelmed. Will Draupadi find the love her life at this ceremony? Will she swept off her feet by Prince Charming? Or is this ceremony all just a joke? Stay tuned to next week's post to find out what happens.   

Bibliography: 

Book: Palace of Illusions  

Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 

Link: Palace of Illusions  

  

Week 10: Reading Diary B

Fish

·         Nyaya Shastra (novel, that set out the laws of the land)

-Described the diligent, moose detail complicated laws concerning household property-including servants and wives.

·         The King pushed Draupadi to spend more time with girls by telling her to focus more time on feminine interests and also talking to daughters of courtiers)

·         I think that her dad (The King) had a fear his only daughter turning into a male.

·         It seems that her skin was bleached, (soaked in yogurt and turmeric paste to counter the ravages of the sun)

·          Since Shikhandi’s visit it urged the King to let Draupadi marry within the next month.

·         She was to have a Swayamvar (practice of choosing a husband, from among a list of suitors, b a girl of marriageable age. Meaning: Sanskrit-self, vara-groom

·         Pg. 55-57 (the context)

·         Kindhara (the heaviest bow in existence) the King has set up an obstacle course

·         Arjun, the third Pandava prince is the only one who was able to lift the bow.

·         Arjun humiliated the King back in the day

·         The Kings plan: Once Arjun has married Draupadi he can no longer fight against the King. Which means he can never be Drona’s ally again.

·         In my eyes I think that Draupadi is being tricked into marrying the enemy.

·         She is not really marrying for love, but rather the satisfaction of her father.

Arjun and Draupadi

Week 10: Reading Diary A

• Incarnations (cont.)
• Draupadi finds out that her eldest sister Shikhandi is not a women, but a man.
• Draupadi gets to meet Shikhandi for the first time.
• “I waited with some excitement to view my sudden-found sister. I wondered what she looked like. Was her body hard and muscular, her arms scarred from weapons? Or was it her heart that had changed so that it no longer shook at the thought of killing?”(use quote)
• Shikhandi walked with grace, light and assured and on the balls of his feet. (pg. 45-46)
• Shikhandi was pleased to meet his sister Draupadi.
• “Little sister, I thank you from the depth of my soul for what you’ll do for me”
• -I wonder if Shikhandi will make his little sister kill the King.
• Shikhandi tells Draupadi his side of the story (bottom of pg. 46)
• He confessed that he had to be a man because only a man can do what he has to accomplish.
• Shikhandi has to kill the greatest warrior of their time, Bheeshma the terrible.
• Bheeshma- was the eight son of Kuru King Shantanu, whom was blessed with wish-long life and had sworn to serve the ruling Kuru King and grandfather of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas
• Bheeshma is the guardian of Hastinapur and granduncle to the prince Arjun (defeated King Draupada and Drona’s friend)
• The legend is: Shikhandi took the garland, and the King cried and called her foolish and unlucky and that was the reason she was banished.
• Shikhandi’s death: death upon a pyre (heap of combustible material, especially one for burning a corpse as part of a funeral ceremony). Flesh melting, eyelids burnt away, skull bursting.
• Pg. 47-48 (important)

Draupadi

Week 9: Storytelling "We finally meet!"

Draupadi

Mrs. Steinberg and her students started to settle back into the classroom after they came back from the fire drill. Most of the students were booming with excitement because they had gotten out of class for fifteen minutes. After bathroom and water breaks, Mrs. Steinberg finally got her students to calm down so she could finish the rest of the story about Shikhandi.   

"Okay, where did I leave off?" Mrs. Steinberg thought to herself. "Oh yes, Shikhandi is making her big return to the palace. But a few characters that I will now introduce you to are: Draupadi, "her sister" and Dhai Ma, one of Draupadi's nurses."  

"As Shikhandi made her grand entrance through the doors of the palace Draupadi peeked through the doors to see the arrival of Shikhandi. As she looked around, she noticed that there was a sense of fear in the eyes of the people of the kingdom. Draupadi thought to herself, "Who was this Shikhandi figure that everyone once whispered about as I was growing up?"   

"Daughter!" King Draupada yelled out. A little teardrop started to fall from Draupadi's eyes as she heard her father call someone else daughter. Draupadi ran over to Dhai Ma and completely broke down in tears within her embrace. Dhai Ma looked at Draupadi and asked her, "What's wrong?"   

Draupadi said, "How could my father keep her existence hidden from me for twelve years? I always wanted to meet the great Shikhandi everyone would talk about. Every time I would bring up her name, Father would get so angry with me." 

Shikhandi

As Mrs. Steinberg paused to check out the expressions of her students faces, one of her students yelled at her to continue on with the story.    

"Dhai Ma reassured Draupadi that she shouldn’t cry and that her father did not mean any harm. Dhai Ma started to tell Draupadi the story about Shikhandi and the reason her father never mentioned her."    

"Now, kids, remember back to the beginning of the story when Shikhandi was first born and the Queen played a trick on the King by saying that Shikhandi was a boy. Her white lie created such an uproar in the kingdom and Shikhandi ran away."

Dhai Ma started to tell the story to Draupadi, "Well, Draupadi, rumor has it that for the past few years she had barricaded herself in her fortress of solitude. She has been out there in the forest all alone without her mother, the Queen, and father, the King. Eventually she had to learn how to survive on her own, by finding shelter and hunting for food. One day while she was out trying to find food, she came across a hurt deer that had been shot in its stomach. She watched it as it suffered an agonizing death. She promised herself that from that day she wouldn't harm a animal, so she became a vegetarian." 

Mrs. Steinberg paused from the story and explained to her class what a vegetarian was. "A vegetarian is someone who does not eat meat, or any animal products." 

One of the boys shouted out loud, "Well, how is Shikhandi supposed to be strong, if she doesn’t eat meat? Meat is supposed to make you really strong." 

Mrs. Steinberg looked at the little boy and laughed. "Yes, meat is very important, but there are other ways that you can get protein to make you really strong," Mrs. Steinberg added. As the room started to get quiet she decided to continue on with the story. 

"Shikhandi was like no other. She would bear the harsh winter cold without a jacket so that she could become mighty and strong." 

Before Mrs. Steinberg could continue with the story she was interrupted with a sly comment from one of her students. "So what you're saying Mrs. Steinberg is if I stand outside in the freezing cold during the winter time, I will become as strong as an ox?" 

"No, Landon," Mrs. Steinberg replied, "things were different back then than they are now. You could catch pneumonia and get really sick if you do that." "Shall I continue with the story?" Mrs. Steinberg said with a stern tone.   

"After Dhai Ma revealed to Draupadi the news of her oldest sister, she was more intrigued to meet Shikhandi. "Every story has two sides to it. I want to hear hers." Dhai Ma hugged Draupadi tightly and told her that Shikhandi was dying to meet her. Draupadi rushed to her room to get ready to meet her sister. She changed her outfit about four times and changed her hairdo three times. Before she could finish getting ready, she was interrupted by a hard and steady knock at her bedroom door.   

(To be continued)   

Author's Note: So since we got to choose which reading we wanted to do for the remainder of the semester, I decided to stick with the story of Shikhandi. Professor Gibbs gave a good book to read for the rest of the semester and the book is called Palace of Illusions. I decided to continue with the Shikhandi theme, but add a little twist to it and add the sister that she has yet to meet, Draupadi. I thought that it was interesting how they brought Shikhandi back, and I want to get the perspective of Draupadi on the arrival of her oldest sister coming back to the palace.The one thing that I thought was funny was that Draupadi never knew that she had a sister. She had heard all of these stories about the great Shikhandi, but she took them as just being rumors. Until Shikhandi came back to the palace. This was perfect for my story because it could build the suspense for the next part of the story that I am planning to do. I didn’t want to give too much information, just so I could make it interesting for my readers for next week.  

Bibliography:  

Book: Palace of Illusions 

Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 

Link: Link to the book!